Post-Punk Redux

From Franz Ferdinand to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to the Futureheads, Moving Units, Bloc Party, and Interpol, the list of current rock acts basing their trip on the Gang of Four sound seems endless. Formed in 1977, Gang of Four brewed a mixture of punk, avant-garde, nerdy funk, and leftist politics. The band’s first three albums—Entertainment!, Solid Gold, and Songs of the Free—are liberating, post-punk masterpieces, with Andy Gill’s slashing, skronky, noisy guitar rewriting the rules of conventional 6-string wisdom.

From Franz Ferdinand to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to the Futureheads, Moving Units, Bloc Party, and Interpol, the list of current rock acts basing their trip on the Gang of Four sound seems endless. Formed in 1977, Gang of Four brewed a mixture of punk, avant-garde, nerdy funk, and leftist politics. The band’s first three albums—Entertainment!, Solid Gold, and Songs of the Free—are liberating, post-punk masterpieces, with Andy Gill’s slashing, skronky, noisy guitar rewriting the rules of conventional 6-string wisdom.